The British PGA Matchplay Championship was a match play golf tournament that began in 1903 and ran until 1979.

Initially organised as the championship of British professionals, the event came to include invited players from other countries – in particular from around the Commonwealth (it was won on four occasions by Australia's Peter Thomson, a record number of victories shared with Dai Rees and James Braid).

On occasion, American professionals also took part, notably in 1949 when eight members of the victorious U.S. Ryder Cup side accepted invites to the event, Lloyd Mangrum reaching the semi-finals.

After World War II, the event provided several notable British and Irish players, like Christy O'Connor Snr, Eric Brown and Dave Thomas, with their greatest triumphs, and also became a showcase for the matchplay strength of Neil Coles, who was at least a semi-finalist eleven times in eighteen years, a remarkable achievement considering the field normally comprised 64 and on occasion 128 players.

However, following the establishment of the British PGA Championship (at stroke play) in 1955, the matchplay version lost some of its importance, and the matchplay format fell out of favour with sponsors, who could not guarantee that the final day would feature any "big-name" players to attract a television audience, nor either that the matches would finish at times to coincide with limited scheduled slots for live transmission.

[1][2] The last champion was Irishman Des Smyth, who beat a youthful Nick Price in the final.

The final stage would be at Sunningdale Golf Club from 13 to 15 October and would be a knock-out match-play contest by 32 professionals.

[6] The final stages were planned for Oxhey Golf Club on 6, 7 and 8 October with the same format and prize money as previously.

The Western section had played their qualification tournament on 9 July at which Charles and Ernest Whitcombe qualified.

Other sections were allocated the following places: Southern 26, Northern 12, Midland 10, Scotland 5, Welsh 4, Eastern 2 and Irish 1.

The final stages were planned for St George's Hill Golf Club from 12 to 15 September with the same format and prize money as previously.

Qualifying events had been completed when the PGA cancelled the tournament in early September on the outbreak of World War II.

The 1946 tournament reverted to the earlier format with 64 players qualifying for the knock-out stage played from 25 to 28 September.

The 8 were: Skip Alexander, Jimmy Demaret, Bob Hamilton, Dutch Harrison, Clayton Heafner, Lloyd Mangrum, Johnny Palmer and Sam Snead.

The 1949 winner (Dai Rees) and the 1950 Open Champion (Bobby Locke) were exempted from qualifying.

The 1950 winner (Dai Rees) and the 1951 Open Champion (Max Faulkner) were exempted from qualifying.

With a total of 66 players reaching the final stage, two preliminary matches were played the day before the main event started.